Pretty Little Thing
by WildSpiritOfDarkness2
Summary: When did being a superhero become so difficult? Probably around the time everybody's hormones went nuts and the media cashed in. Rated for lots of swearing. CH7: Everyone is keeping secrets from Starfire! Prolly cause she can't seem to stop telling BB's.
1. I'm so not pretending to not be hungry

"Okay, okay, okay...Hey! How about this one? The pope, a monkey, and eight little Slade 'mini-me's are hanging out on the lawn of the White House, and the monkey is like--OOF! Oww..."

"I fear that I don't get it, Beast Boy."

"No, no, Star. That wasn't the joke. Raven elbowed me in the ribs." The tone was nastier probably than it was meant to be. "That really hurt..." He whined under his breath.

"Oh." Starfire put down her window halfway, allowing her thick red hair to whip around her head until she pulled it all back and held it down with her hand.

Cyborg glanced into the mirror up over the dashboard. Beast Boy was slouched with his arms crossed over his chest, fuming and crushed sideways into Raven by the stacks of crates and cardboard boxes in the right window seat and on the floor. Raven was also looking a little angry, though she at least had the available window.

Always a (somewhat) responsible driver, Cyborg turned his eyes back to the road, content that an actual fight wasn't going to break out in the backseat of his beautiful car. He swerved a little when Robin sped by him on the left with his 'R-cycle,' and a box fell off the pile in the backseat onto Beast Boy. For its small size, it was definitely heavy, which was suggested by the label, "Canned Potatoes- LARGE" and confirmed by Beast Boy's yell.

"Heh. Sorry, BB. We're almost there, don't kill anything." Cyborg said, glancing at the kid in the back. Starfire turned in her seat to take the box into her own lap and ask if Beast Boy was alright. He didn't answer her, just morphed into a swallow and darted through Starfire's open window.

"Good riddance." Raven mumbled, not really meaning it. She doubted if her two teammates heard her at all. She closed her eyes and Cyborg followed Robin, turning into a weary-looking lot and parking next to the old brick building planted in the middle of it.

"Alright, kids, glad you're here!" Said a long looking man as he walked over with big strides. "Glad to meet you, Robin." They shook hands. Robin, at just a few inches below six feet, had to look very far upwards to see the middle-aged man's face.

"So where do we put the stuff we brought?" Robin asked. Cyborg opened up the trunk of his car as Raven and Beast Boy got all the crates and boxes out of the backseat.

"You can just stack them up right here along the wall." The man gestured to a length of dull brick wall between the glass double doors and the corner of the building about ten yards away. There was an old, torn sign reading "Food Donations- nonperishable foods only. See inside for receipt."

There were already some boxes stacked up, but not many. It was early in the morning of the first day of Jump City's big food drive, so this was understandable. The Titans made quick work of stacking the boxes of canned foods they'd brought, since not many could fit into the T-car in the first place.

Robin, Cyborg, and the man went inside the building once all the boxes were piled neatly, leaving Beast Boy, Starfire, and Raven to stand around outside at a loss for what to do next. After only a few moments, a huge blue-green van pulled into the lot and a young couple struggled to unload it. Raven went over to help, for want of something to do, but Beast Boy and Starfire were content with laziness, and sat down on the rough and cracked pavement.

"Hey, Star?"

"Yes, friend?"

"Uhm. Do you mind if I take shotgun the way back?" Beast Boy picked up a pebble and chucked it away from the van, towards the fence surrounding the lot.

"Sure, Beast Boy, but why?" Starfire didn't really care why, but she also didn't really want to sit in silence after saying 'yes'. She stretched out her legs and crossed them, leaning back on her hands.

"I don't really want to sit next to Raven for another half hour." Beast Boy threw another rock, hitting the fence. Then he added, "And it's too far to fly back. Or too early in the morning for it, anyway."

Starfire's interest was piqued. "Are you and Raven in a disagreement? Nothing I can recall has been new to your relationship lately." Neither of them noticed when the van pulled out of the lot and headed back towards Jump City.

"Ugh, Star. We're not in a 'relationship'. She doesn't even like me. At all." He shrugged for no real reason. "It's not that, anyway. She's just been kind of annoying me lately for some reason."

"Oh." And nothing more was said for the time being.

Raven stood a moment more behind Starfire and Beast Boy, where they had not noticed her presence in the end of their discussion. At first she wondered how she annoyed Beast Boy, then she marveled at how Starfire's one spoken word was right on beat with her mental response to Beast Boy's confession, and then she realized she was hungry and hoped that a lunch break would not be taken too soon. She quietly walked away from her teammates and tried a door of the T-car and found it, as she expected, to be locked.

She leaned against it. She hadn't seen any other volunteers except for the man who greeted them. She tried to remember what he looked like. He was very, very tall. Possibly taller than Cyborg, and he was thin. Raven wondered how old he was. His hair wasn't white, but it was barely able to cover his scalp in dusty blonde fluff, and he didn't have too many wrinkles, but enough to make him older than 40. She couldn't for the life of her remember the colour of his cheerful-looking eyes.

She shook her head and looked around the lot for something else to keep her distracted. She noted that Beast Boy and Starfire were having a rather animated conversation, but didn't care enough to listen in. Last time she'd done that, she'd heard something she wished she hadn't.

Some birds flew overhead and landed on a nearby power line. This charity building was on the outskirts of town, close enough to see the skyscrapers and office buildings, but far enough to not hear much of the city noise. Raven briefly wished that Titan's Tower was that far from the city, or farther, but common sense took hold and she knew the city would be impossible to protect from such a distance. She sighed, wondering how long it would take before Robin and Cyborg came back outside so that they could leave. There was a large moving truck full of crates waiting at the docks for them to deliver it here, now that they'd dropped off what hadn't fit inside it.

Raven released some pent-up energy on the loose gravel littered on the pavement at her feet. She scattered it one way, then another, making simple little designs in the thin layer of dirt. After a few moments, she lowered her hood and stood up from leaning on the car. It was probably about ten in the morning, but it was early summer, and the days heated up fast. She squinted up at the bare blue sky, hoping to see clouds coming to rescue her from the sun's glare, and was disappointed.

Beast Boy and Starfire had gone off, she noticed suddenly. Raven didn't think about it much, though, because the heat was really starting to get to her. As she looked at the sky, she imagined the smooth gray skin on her face turning red and blistering into sores as if it were boiling, and finally melting away from the white bone underneath, as the skin on the rest of her body followed suit from top, down to her feet. Raven looked down at her cloth boots and bare legs. She wondered if sun screen contained holy water.

---

Starfire cheered as the ancient pinball machine lit up and blared some terrible "you're winning" music as Beast Boy played. Cyborg watched the game eagerly, probably awaiting his turn once his friend had lost. Raven just shook her head and let the door close behind her quietly. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light coming from some barely working ceiling light fixtures.

The building was mostly one room, filled with racks of clothes, boxes of things, shelves of things, and an assortment of furniture and appliances. The pinball machine and two vending machines were located on the far wall, and Raven could barely see it.

"Hey, Raven, over here!"

Raven turned to the left, where she spotted Robin, who'd just called for her, and the man whose name she still didn't know. They were sitting at a folding table with a bunch of papers on the table. Raven walked over and pulled out a seat next to Robin. He was busy filling out forms.

"Raven, this is Mr. Pilkvist. He owns the building and runs all the charities and such that use it. Mr. Pilkvist, Raven." Robin pushed some forms in front of Raven. She hurriedly grabbed a pen off the table and began reading a form, hoping that Mr. Pilkvist wouldn't try to shake her hand.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Pilkvist." She said. "What are we filling out?"

"Nice to meet you too, Raven." His smile was warm. "These are just some tax forms and then the forms you have to sign to be a volunteer here, since the place is privately owned and all that. Your friends don't seem to have adequate attention spans to fill out their own, so Robin's scrambling to do them all."

"Yeah, I left yours. Figured it would be better if you just did it yourself."

Raven nodded. The first thing to put down was her name. "Robin, are we putting down real names or--"

"Whatever you want. It doesn't really matter except in my case since my name is actually a secret." He finished a form and reached for another. "Why'd you even ask? I thought Raven was your real name."

"It is." Raven said quietly, honestly not sure why she asked in the first place. She penned in 'Raven Roth' and continued filling out the form. It appeared to be the volunteer form, since it was asking for her race and address and such. She only left the year part of the 'DOB' blank empty. She couldn't remember the difference in years between Azarath and Earth. Finally, she signed it and moved on to another stack of forms.

"Are these the tax forms?" She asked. "Tax deduction, I mean?"

"Yeah. I should probably do those, though." Robin traded her four paper stack for his even smaller one. "Here are the rest of the volunteer forms. Just do Beast Boy's and the rest of Cyborg's."

"Alright." Raven was quick to fill out the forms and, upon finishing, realized that Cyborg and Beast Boy had already signed. She wondered if that was even legal and looked over at Robin, who was on the last tax form. "Do you want these, Mr. Pilkvist?"

"Yes, Raven. Thank you." She handed him all of the volunteer forms, careful not to touch his hand. The hairs on her neck remained standing; he'd been staring at her since she'd walked in.

"Alright. I'm finished." Robin said, the anxiety barely hidden in his voice. "Anything else?"

"No, I think you're good. All you need to do is drop off the t--" Mr. Pilkvist was cut off by a rather catchy little melody from Robin's communicator. (Beep-beep beep be-beep beep beep-be-beep.) Robin fished it out of his belt and flipped it open.

"Trouble!" Robin shouted, catching the other titans' attentions. In a flash, everyone was out of the building and in the lot. "It's just a small gang fight downtown, so ah, Raven and Beast Boy, go get the truck from the docks and bring it down here. Titans, g--"

"Neither of us can drive." Raven said.

"Alright, Cyborg and Raven, you guys go." Robin responded without much thought. He jumped up into the air as Beast Boy morphed into a hawk and flew towards the city. Starfire caught him and the three were off.

Cyborg turned to Raven. "You got your limited license two days ago." Raven only shrugged and walked to the T-car. Cyborg unlocked it and they both climbed in and drove towards the bay.

---

"You know, this band is okay." Raven said, eyes closed, head against the passenger side window. Cyborg snorted.

"What? Is something wrong with them?"

"It's Linkin Park, Raven." Cyborg chuckled.

"So?"

"Never mind." Cyborg turned up the volume a little more, and Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" played on. He was glad she was taking an interest in something, even if it was popular emo music. In rap form. He glanced sideways at his little gray friend. She had curled up in the passenger seat in an awkward sitting position, and was using her hood as a pillow against the window. Cyborg couldn't tell if she was sleeping, but he hoped she wasn't. They were fast approaching the docks and he didn't want to have to wake her.

Cyborg turned left and pulled into the parking lot of a warehouse. He sat for a moment, trying to remember which pier the truck would be at. He parked and took the key out of the ignition.

"Twenty-eight."

Cyborg looked at Raven in surprise. She shrugged and uncurled, stretching a little before stepping out of the car. Cyborg followed suit, locking the doors.

"It's right down there." Raven nodded toward the water away from the direction of the Tower. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Cyborg guessed she'd actually been sleeping, or attempting to, despite the drive only being half an hour. He followed her down a small hill, and they walked along the docks bustling with midday activity.

People gave way to the two titans. Cyborg drew attention to them with his size, but Raven might've gone unnoticed without him. People didn't always see her in a crowd, partly because she was just barely over five feet tall, and partly because she didn't like to be noticed.

Cyborg and Raven found pier twenty-eight and signed off on the huge U-haul type truck without much talking. With anyone else, long silences were immensely uncomfortable for him, but as they climbed into the truck and he started driving all without a word, Cyborg realized that quiet was okay with Raven. She made him feel calmed and at peace, and he briefly wondered why she couldn't have that effect on Beast Boy.

Raven stared out the open window, squinting every once in a while against the hot, rough winds blowing by. Her stomach suddenly growled loudly. She blushed when Cyborg laughed.

"Wanna stop and get lunch?" He asked, and when she grimaced in reply, he added, "Or we can drop this thing off and get something with the others, if they're done." At that moment, Raven received a call on her communicator. Flipping it open and almost dropping it in the process, she found Robin on the screen.

"What do you need, Robin?"

"We finished here, but then we got two more calls that we're going to go and take care of."

"Okay." Raven wasn't sure why he was even telling her all this.

"Basically, I just wanted to let you guys know that when you've finished up with the food drive, go ahead back to the tower and we'll meet you guys there later this afternoon. Maybe we'll all have a late lunch."

"Right."

"Or not. I'm out. Later." And with that, he ended the link. Raven shut her communicator and put it away. She leaned back into the seat and shut her eyes.

"I hate this truck." Raven said suddenly.

"What do you want me do about it?" Cyborg joked, getting off the exit ramp a little too fast. Raven thought for a moment that it would tip, but it seemed to be fine after a few seconds.

"I don't know. Can't you fix the air conditioner?"

"While driving?"

Raven shrugged. Cyborg laughed. Raven smiled to herself. She liked to hear people laugh.

"Don't worry about it. We're almost-- Nope, we're here." Cyborg said, pulling into the dusty old lot once again. He parked alongside a half-filled truck twice as big as the one he was driving. He and Raven got out and walked around to the back. Raven walked over to Mr. Pilkvist while Cyborg opened up the back of the truck.

"Oh, I'm so glad there're two of you." Was Mr. Pilkvist's greeting. "None of the people came that were supposed to, except for the useless guy who drives this monstrosity."

"Okay. Should Cyborg and I load it from this truck?"

"Yes, please, if it's not too much to ask. We're going to need the truck you've brought to transport everything from the drive across town to here."

"It's no problem at all. We'll go ahead and get started." Raven smiled at Mr. Pilkvist in as much a friendly manner as she could manage and went back over to Cyborg. "We've got to move everything from here to the other truck."

"That shouldn't be too hard." Cyborg replied. He pulled three crates out of the truck. Raven bit her lip.

"I can't really use my powers for this kind of thing. I lose control too easily with all the focus required not to break the things inside the crates and everything..." She shuffled her feet.

"It's fine, Rae. It'll take a little longer, but it's no big deal." He grinned at her and went into the bigger truck to add his crates to a stack. Raven looked up at the truck packed to the top with stacks of crates. She climbed up the ramp and levitated to pull a crate off the top. It was a very heavy one, and she wished she'd picked a different crate. One marked "empty", perhaps.

She lowered herself to the ground and nearly bumped into Cyborg as she went up the ramp to the larger truck. He took her crate with one hand and ruffled her short hair with the other. She growled.

"Heh. Sorry, Rae. Here, why don't you just take boxes from there and put 'em on the floor of this truck instead of going all up this ramp here. I'll just stack them up."

"Okay." Raven turned from him and went back the other truck. She flew up a few feet to get a new crate, this one a little smaller, and carried it down the ramp, then to the bigger truck. She placed it on the edge, next to the ramp.

The sun beat down on the titans as they worked. Cyborg wasn't having too bad a time, though. His mechanical body kept his body temperature comfortably cooled, and the lifting and stacking of boxes wasn't bothering him much. Raven, however, had not only broken a sweat, but vowed to start listening to Robin when he told her she needed physical training along with meditation and exercises of her powers.

After two hours, the truck was completely empty, and Raven finally decided a break was a good idea. She sat on the ramp of the bigger truck and used a bit of her cloak to wipe her face. She'd considered taking the heavy cloak off, but her self-consciousness was stronger than the heat, and she kept it on. It was the only thing keeping her outfit from being totally indecent.

The ramp vibrated when Cyborg stepped onto it. He walked down to the end where Raven was sitting in the dirt and plopped down next to her.

"So...we're totally done." He said after a moment's quiet.

"Mhm."

"I'm starving."

"Okay." Raven stood up, ready to go home. She put her hood down and looked around the parking lot, and became a little distressed. "Cyborg, we left the T-car at the docks. And it looks like Robin got his R-cycle back."

"Aww, chill, Rae. It's fine." He stood up next to her and put a massive hand on her little shoulder. "There was a Pepsi machine inside. I've got some cash. Let's go get something to drink and then we'll walk back." Her let go of Raven and walked to the building. She followed, but only because the building was cool inside and there was a drink to be had.

Raven followed Cyborg to the back of the building. The hairs on her neck stood up, but she didn't see Mr. Pilkvist anywhere. In fact, neither of the titans had seen him since they started working. Raven shrugged it off, and thought about what she wanted to drink that would come out of a dusty old machine.

"Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Sunkist, and Aquafina. The flavoured kind." Cyborg said, as if having read Raven's mind. He pushed a dollar into the machine and Raven hit the Diet Pepsi button. She' have chosen the water, but flavoured water was too weird for her.

"Diet? Rae, you're such a girl." Cyborg rolled his eyes. He pushed in another dollar and another, buying two Sunkists. Raven read the nutrition facts on her can of soda. Zero calories, zero fat, some sodium, and none of the other stuff. She shrugged and popped it open.

"There's no way I can fly us back, Cyborg. I'm too worn out." She sipped her drink, cringing at the carbonation. Sometimes, she almost wished she were like Starfire. Starfire could eat whatever she wanted and not worry about anything like taste and whatnot.

"That's alright, Rae. I'll call Robin and see if somebody can't bring the T-car out here." He pushed a button on his arm and Robin's face popped up a moment later. His helmet was on, and he appeared to be racing down a city street on his R-cycle.

"What do you need, Cy?"

"What's going on?" Cyborg frowned and took a drink of Sunkist.

"There were more gangs ready to fight today than we realized. The cops are actually," Robin swerved harshly to avoid something and made an awkward motion like he'd thrown something. "The cops are actually helping us out for once. Where are you guys?"

"Well, we're back at the charity center without a ride. Raven's too tired to get us anyplace far off, so...yeah."

"If she can't use her powers much anyway, don't worry about you guys getting here. You'll have to find your own way back, though. Sorry." Robin made that awkward motion again. "Look, go on back to the tower until Raven's rested up and come help us out if this is still going down. I kind of need to go."

"Alright, Rob. See you." And with that, Robin cut the transmission. "Guess we're walking, Rae."

"Goody." Raven wiped her face with her hand, feeling rather greasy and gross due to the sweat. "Huh. I'd rather hitchhike."

"Yep.'Cause that's what superheroes do. We hitchhike." Cyborg ruffled her hair again.

"So you two are done?" Even Raven jumped. She and Cyborg turned around to see Mr. Pilkvist.

"Er... yeah. Yeah, we are." Cyborg said, grinning.

"That's great. Very good." Mr. Pilkvist smiled at them as if he were very proud of them. Raven resisted raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, we're just going to walk back to the city." Raven said, itching to leave.

"Walk? All the way back?" Mr. Pilkvist frowned. "Well, I'm driving that truck back in a few moments, and I can take you two back. Maybe I can drop you off at a restaurant or something?"

"Wow, thanks. That would be great, if it's not too much trouble, acourse." Cyborg eagerly replied. Raven inwardly cringed, but kept her facial expression pleasantly neutral.

"It's no trouble at all! In fact, there's a nice inexpensive little place that's right near the bay. I can drop you all off pretty close to there."

"Oh, good. Lunch would definitely be nice. What d'you say, Rae?"

Rave shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

"It's a deal. Let's go!" Mr. Pilkvist said. Raven and Cyborg followed him out of the building. Cyborg tossed his first can of soda into a nearby trash bin.

---

I've decided that to preserve my sanity, this is where the chapter needs to end. It's nearly forty-one hundred words without this note. The next chapter is complete, but I won't post it until chapter three is finished (and I'll post that when I finish four, and so on.)

Thanks for reading,

--Emerald

PS: If you've got any feedback (criticism, encouragement, even threats if I haven't updated in a while, etc) it's all welcome. If you've got nothing to say, well, I hope you did enjoy my story here. :)


	2. I'd be fine if you'd shut up

"They're still not back?" Raven's hair was a little damp, but that was the only indicator of the wonderful shower she'd just had. For the last hour and a half. She'd just walked into the main room to see Cyborg sprawled on the couch watching television.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, they finished the fight a while ago. They went to a celebratory dinner or something." Cyborg replied absently. Raven was in the kitchen by then, looking into the refrigerator.

"Why didn't you go?"

"Iunno. I told them I'd wait for you to get out of the shower, but I don't really want to go anyway. I'm sick of pizza."

Raven raised an eyebrow that she knew he couldn't see. She shut the fridge. She hadn't found anything appetizing in there for a while, but she always looked, mostly out of habit. She grabbed a cup from the cupboard and filled it with water to drink.

"Since when do you get sick of pizza?"

"I don't know. What do you want for dinner?" He asked. His stomach was hurting from hunger. The two hadn't stopped for food on the way home after all. He wasn't mad at Raven, but she could've picked a better time to fall asleep on his shoulder and look so peaceful he couldn't wake her until they were at the Tower.

"You haven't eaten yet?" Raven idly sipped her water and watched the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was pretty funny, though she didn't really know much about politics.

"Like I said. I was waiting on you."

"Hm." Raven said. "Why'd you do that?"

"Iunno. 'Cause we're friends?" He sat up and stretched. "Girl, if you don't tell me what you want, I'm making that "Easy Mac" stuff."

"Ugh," was Raven's response. "I rather have something lighter. A salad or soup or whatever we have."

"Salad? Soup? What's wrong with you, Rae?" He said playfully. "Eat like that and you'll lose those womanly curves." He laughed and went into the kitchen to make his macaroni and Raven's salad. Raven shrugged and kept watching the television.

'Womanly curves?' She thought, drinking her less than cold water. 'Like fat?' She'd heard some boys at the mall joking once while she was on a trip with Starfire. They had been talking about the 'nice names' for fat girls. 'Curvy' had been one. She furrowed her eyebrows and sighed. Cyborg wouldn't make fun of her. He was probably her best friend right now; he cared about her. He didn't mean it that way.

The halfling in question brought Raven her salad just then, plopping down next to her on the couch and flipping the channels. "Eat up! We had plenty of salad materials, lucky you."

Raven smiled and settled down into the soft, slightly lumpy couch with her big purple bowl of salad in her lap.

---

"Robin, your eye is swollen shut."

"Yeah, thanks, Star, I hadn't noticed."

"Your sarcasm is unappreciated," Starfire pushed a bowl of cereal in front of him. "But I will excuse it in light of your injury and the earliness of this morning." She smiled, digging into her own bowl of cereal. Robin poked his.

"Did you, ah, put anything but cereal and milk in this, Starfire?"

"A spoon, but nothing else." She went back to wolfing down her breakfast. Beast Boy and Cyborg weren't awake yet, so it was quiet. No one else was usually awake at seven in the morning. Robin swore he'd seen Raven out of her room on his way to the main room, but he'd been too tired to be sure he hadn't seen a shadow or something of the sort.

Starfire pushed her bowl into the sink when she finished and opened up the freezer. She was halfway around the breakfast bar before Robin realized she was coming at him

"What're you doing, Star?"

"Ice will help heal the swelling, Robin." She said, in an uncharacteristically 'duh' tone of voice. Robin muttered under his breath, but allowed his friend to gently put the bag of ice to his face. He sucked in breath when the cold seeped through his mask.

After eight seconds, he started to become restless. After twelve, he stood suddenly, took the ice from Starfire, and strode to the couch and sat down. Starfire shrugged and left him to stare at Fox news, slouching like a normal teenage boy.

---

Beast Boy kicked his legs a few times, but they remained entangled in his bedsheets. He rolled a short way across his torn bunk bed mattress until his arm hung off the side, and he continued to snore softly. Suddenly, he jerked, and toppled to the floor with a yell.

"Ugh... What a wake up call." He groaned, stretching out across the floor on his back. He paused when he heard footsteps outside his door, but they didn't stop, so he got to his feet and rubbed his eyes again.

"What time is it?" Beast Boy wandered out of his room and down the hallway in the direction that those footsteps had come from. By the time he arrived in the main room, Robin was gone, but Cyborg was frying up something in the kitchen that smelled suspiciously like bacon. The time on the oven was a quarter 'till eight, so Beast Boy decided going back to sleep would be good right about then.

"I can't believe you're eating that, Cyborg." He said, shuffling over to the couch. "Traitorous bastard." He bent and rolled over the back of the couch onto the cushions.

"Watch your language," Was all Cyborg said in reply. He happily pushed the food he'd prepared onto a plate and had barely sat down when he started stuffing himself. Beast Boy snored.

Raven finally stalked into the room as Cyborg was dropping dishes into the sink and Beast Boy was pouring himself a tall glass of soy milk. She sat down on a stool quietly and watched the boys have a sane discussion about Halo.

"Are you two getting along during breakfast time? Am I a schizophrenic?" She finally asked. Cyborg snickered, but Beast Boy didn't say anything.

"I've got to get an upgrade for my system today." Cyborg said, checking the time. "STAR labs is giving me one for free."

"Okay, dude." Beast Boy started making himself some tofu something. Raven couldn't tell what food it was trying to replace, and she continued to sit quietly as Cyborg left the room.

"Raven, you're freaking me out. Seriously, quit staring." Beast Boy said nervously. It was true that Raven always seemed a little angry to him, but he didn't like to be stared at like that regardless.

"So...What's been going on with you lately?" She asked, ignoring him. She rested her head on her hands.

"Not much. I'm going to see a movie later maybe." He brought his plate around the bar and sat down on the only stool not next to her. "Why're you asking?"

"I don't know." Raven shrugged and kicked at the legs of her seat. "I'm just trying to make conversation. You get irritable when there's quiet." Beast Boy didn't have anything to say to that, and Raven didn't speak again.

---

Robin walked purposefully down the dark hallway, drying his sweat-soaked face and hair. He was on his way to his morning shower, from his morning work out. He was already planning the rest of his training for the day. He was, however, _not_ expecting the closest bathroom to be occupied, and he was really not expecting the stomach-turning sounds of someone being very sick into the toilet.

"Who's in there?" He asked. "Are you okay?" Robin forgot all about his shower and training for the concern of a fellow teammate. He wasn't yet concerned enough to burst in, but he knocked in a very worried manner.

"I'm," A cough, "I'm fine, Robin..." Another cough, followed by more wretching.

"What-- Raven? You're sure you're okay? Do you need something?" He was surprised that Raven would be sick, but he hadn't seen her in almost twenty four hours, and she hadn't seemed like herself lately. He worked everything out in his head, and deemed her actually sick, just because he's Robin and sounds of violent purging somehow weren't enough.

The sickness seemed to have stopped. Robin heard shuffling around and heavy breathing, and then the toilet was flushed several times. He almost knocked again, but the door opened and there stood Raven with bloodshot eyes, sweatbeads on her forehead, and a hand towel over her mouth.

"It's all yours." She muttered behind the hand towel. Robin stopped her before she could get away.

"Raven, are you sure you're okay?" Raven looked pointedly at his hand on her upper arm. He removed it, and she removed the towel long enough to give him one of those fake smiles that were really just thinly veiled grimaces. He knew them well; he gave them to his friends often.

"I'm fine. I feel a lot better, actually. I guess I've just come down with something nasty."

"Well, alright. Uhm, why don't you get some rest, then?" He stopped her again as she turned. "I know you'd be more comfortable in your room, but I'd really rather you stayed on the couch so the rest of us can keep an eye on you. Help you out if you need something or get sicker."

"I... Sure." Raven shrugged and went the other way, towards the main room. Robin rubbed the back of his neck. A Titan sick? That wasn't a rare occurrence, but it hindered the team in a fight by quite a lot.

He touched the towel resting on his shoulder and remembered his shower. He walked into the bathroom and sprayed an air freshener. Robin checked behind the shower curtain for evil, and stripped.

---

I'm going to pretend that this is two thousand words. The next chapter is written and will be posted once the fourth chapter is written. (When I learn how much time it takes between chapters, I'll get on a regular schedule.)

Thanks for reading,

--Emerald

PS: If you've got any feedback (criticism, encouragement, even threats if I haven't updated in a while, etc) it's all welcome. If you've got nothing to say, well, I hope you did enjoy my story here. :)


	3. I think I might be fat

Raven spent most of the next two days on the couch in the main room reading or watching television. She honestly felt better only a few minutes after her run-in with Robin in the bathroom, but she'd been feeling very tired lately. Raven wasn't one to take advantage, but she felt it was probably better for the team if she took a break to catch up on sleep.

That was her story, and she was sticking to it.

So Raven spent a lot of time sleeping, moving twice to shower and four times to use the bathroom. She was largely undisturbed because even Beast Boy was surprised that she had the ability to get sick, and no one in the tower wanted to catch anything. She'd been bothered to eat something a few times, but she waved her friends away saying she was feeling too queasy to eat and promising that she'd eat something in a few hours when she felt a little less nauseous.

Finally, though, after those two days of rest and relaxation, Raven sat up and stretched. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and squinted at the bright sunlight pouring into the main room. There was no one in the room, so Raven decided that it would be a good time to get up and get back into life.

The whistle sounded very soon after she put the kettle on to boil. Someone had been cooking close to the time she'd woken up. Raven fixed her cup of bitter herbal tea and sniffed at the steam. She allowed herself a small smile and walked out of the main room, careful not to spill a drop from her white teacup.

Raven sensed two someones in Starfire's room as she passed it, and she blushed at the energy coming from it through the walls. She guessed Robin was inside with Starfire and that Starfire was about to burst with joy from the close proximity and alone time with the Boy Wonder. Raven continued walking.

After a few more minutes walking, Raven realized she didn't know where she was going. She looked down at her nearly empty teacup and sighed. She was in a hall near the training rooms, she realized, and so she went towards those.

The large training room was empty; she wandered in and inspected all the equipment lying around. Next to Beast Boy's treadmill and scanners was a smaller, more normal looking treadmill. Raven walked over to it and stared at the buttons. She made an uncharacteristically snap decision and teleported herself to her room.

Raven found a pair of black cotton shorts surprisingly quickly and pulled them on over her normal uniform. She was back in the training room, looking at the treadmill in less than a minute, and she discarded her cape next to the teacup she'd left on the floor.

Raven stepped up onto the nonmoving plastic pieces on either side of the rubber that would soon be running under her feet. Most of the buttons were pretty straight-forward in their functions. She pressed the power button and nothing happened. Raven frowned at the machine for a moment, and then noticed the empty slot for the safety key. She didn't see the key anywhere nearby, so she hopped off the treadmill.

Raven was still pretty anxious to be doing something, so she wandered around the gym until she found a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. She ran her fingers over the dusty red plastic fabric before backing up to recall the things that she knew from her few training sessions with Robin.

After a very brief meditation session to keep her powers under control, she attacked the punching bag, throwing slightly weak punches and nearly losing her balance while kicking.

Raven finally managed to land a strong side kick, causing the punching bag to swing back, and she moved closer to punch it without thinking about the consequences. The bag swung towards Raven faster than she expected and knocked her to the ground a few feet away.

The bag continued to sway as Raven sat on the ground breathing heavily. When it stopped suddenly, she looked up to see Beast Boy steadying it and looking down at her concernedly.

"Hey, Raven. You okay?"

"Peachy." She muttered, hauling herself to her feet.

"You're not good at fighting." He said mildly.

"You're not good at being funny." Raven retorted. She was being a little cold towards him, but he was pointing out her flaws, so it was totally justified in her mind.

"No, no. I'm just saying. It's not like you practice a lot, so it would be weird if you were, like, amazing at it." He glanced at the door several yards away as if planning an escape in case things got ugly. "Robin's busy with Starfire, but I can help you until he's not being all teenage romance or whatever."

Raven crossed her arms and glared at him for a moment. Finally, she dropped the hostile act and her arms to her sides.

"Okay. What first?" She said evenly. Beast Boy grinned and, grabbing her arm just above the elbow, yanked Raven to the other side of the room where there was a rather large computer.

"Cyborg made this program with all this training stuff on it that totally makes a whole exercise program based on your you. It's so cool!" He filled out a form partway before hitting a few snags. "Okay, girl, 16, uhmm..." Beast Boy pushed Raven over to a wall on the side. There was a large scale on the floor and measuring tape stuck to the wall.

"Okay, stand on the scale, and then we'll do your height and body fat percentage thingy." He said, standing next to the measuring tape and using his hand to find his height. Raven stood on the scale, watching Beast Boy's comical reaction to his own short stature.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" She asked.

"Yeah, I do my own every two or three weeks so it'll keep updated with progress and stuff." He forgot all about his height and looked at the computer. "You're a hundred and forty pounds. And a half. Okay, height time!"

Raven was five feet, five inches tall on the dot. She measured her own waist, neck, and hips with some extra measuring tape lying around and put those numbers into the computer herself. Raven didn't know what the numbers meant, but she frowned at her hip circumference, thirty-seven inches, which was exactly ten inches more than her waist. It sounded high to her, but she finished the form and let the computer go to work.

"Okay, so it just comes out with your B.M.I., body fat thingy, and some other random stuff. Then you get to pick what stuff you like to do and it comes up with a schedule on it's own."

Raven was still frowning. All those numbers didn't make much sense, but they didn't look good at all. While Beast Boy wasn't looking, she poked her stomach and grimaced.

"Okay! Here it is, Rae-Rae--sorry, sorry--your BMI is twenty-three point four, and your body fat is twenty-four."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't really know, but I told somebody I'd meet them for lunch, so I've gotta go. Good luck, Raven!"

Raven muttered a farewell, and her small friend was gone. She was left staring at the screen, trying to figure out what to do next. She hit the 'save profile' button, and looked at a few links on the screen. Both of the numbers were clickable, so she clicked the BMI link first.

Some text appeared next to the number reading "Healthy weight range: 18.5-24.9." Raven crossed her arms. She'd been right, she was almost overweight. She clicked the body fat percentage number next and the text read, "The body fat percentage of 'Raven' is 24. Recommended BF for a woman is 22." Raven looked around the room, to make sure she was alone. She'd been trying to lose a few pounds, but she hadn't realized she was too fat. She angrily clicked 'next' and checked the boxes next to activities she didn't mind doing. When she finished, she let the machine come up with a training schedule, but just saved it and shut it down without looking.

"I'm way out of shape..." She muttered to herself, and she gathered up her cape and teacup before going off to her room.

---

Starfire glared at her dessert cookbook. She had wanted to make cookies, but now she was losing interest because the recipe was bringing her a very bland-coloured, sweet tasting dough. However, she was going to stick to this one to the end. She measured out some margarine and poured it into the bowl. She stirred. And when she finished stirring, she looked to the directions again.

"Place on ungreased cookie sheet?" She muttered. "Two inches...three hundred-fifty..." Starfire sighed. Her cookie dough looked very boring. Suddenly, her mouth turned up at the corners. Starfire had spotted three very colourful food items on the counter, probably from someone's lunch.

Starfire grabbed them and dumped hefty amounts into the dough and mixed again. When the dough was a wonderful puke colour, she turned on the oven and prepared the cookies for baking. All the cookie dough was out of sight when Cyborg entered.

"Yo, Star! What're you doing?"

"Oh, hi, Cyborg! I am making the cookies."

"Uhh... Does Robin know you're doin' that?"

"Of course! I have followed the recipe in this American Desserts book of cooking that he gave me." She said with a grin as she put some of the dishes she'd used into the sink.

"You...didn't add anything?"

"No, Cyborg, why?" She smiled as innocently as possible and cleaned the rest of her mess. Cyborg sniffed the air.

"Well... In that case, I'll try one when they're done, 'kay?"

"Yes! 'Kay!'" She grinned happily. Her earthling friends didn't usually want to try her cooking, and even Raven (whose cooking was usually as bad or worse) wouldn't try even a bite. Cyborg gave her a weird look and wandered off, probably to play the gamestation.

Starfire picked up the cookbook from the counter and sat on the floor next to the oven to read through it. When those cookies were done, she was going to find a more exciting recipe.

---

So... Yes. Not quite two thousand words either, but I didn't know what to write. Things will get exciting soon...I swear...

Thanks for reading,  
--Emerald

PS: If you've got any feedback (criticism, encouragement, even threats if I haven't updated in a while, etc) it's all welcome. If you've got nothing to say, well, I hope you did enjoy my story here. :)


	4. I'm confused now

Robin walked purposefully down the Jump City street, pretty much on the verge of marching. He had a way of carrying himself so that he was as intimidating and impressive as possible and would probably be over-the-top if it weren't for his ridiculously bright spandex-like costume. Most people didn't know this about him, but Robin was rather fond of traffic lights. Garrett Morgen was his hero, but now wasn't the time to be thinking about his perversions towards inventors and obnoxious colours. He was on a mission.

The streets were crowded, but not overly so. The air was filled with a little smog and a lot of some kind of rotting-muskrat-wrapped-in-marijuana perfume from an overly cute boutique across the road. Robin's face was set in an ambiguous frown as he concentrated on finding a certain dusty bookstore.

A small bell tinkled when the door opened. Robin scowled, but didn't otherwise acknowledge the noise. He wasn't in a good mood already, and he didn't like it when he was announced before he could announce himself. He walked in and was immediately hidden from view by the tall shelves crowding the quaint shop. The books were mostly thick, leather-bound old things, rather than more modern hardcover and paperbound books. Robin began browsing, hoping for some kind of alphabetical or otherwise organization. There wasn't any apparent to him.

"Can I help you, Robin?" A familiar male voice asked behind him. Robin jumped, and then calmed upon recognition.

"Hey, Mr. Pilkvist," He said, turning around. "I'm just browsing, I think."

"You think? What are you looking for, then?" Mr. Pilkvist smiled knowingly. Robin was put on edge, which wasn't Mr. Pilkvist's intention. Robin just really hated knowing smiles.

"Do you have anything on ESP?" Robin scratched his ankle with the heel of his other foot.

"Of course! This is a paranormal bookstore, after all!" Mr. Pilkvist exclaimed cheerfully. He put a hand on Robin's shoulder and guided him through the maze of bookshelves just a _little_ too forcefully until they reached a back corner of the store, near the desk. "Now, browse to your heart's content."

Robin suddenly thought of something. "Wait-- you work here?"

"No, I own this little shop. The charity building doesn't pay for itself, you know." He winked and walked through a door behind the desk, presumably to a storage room or office. Robin looked up at all the books, unsure of where to start.

He didn't have a chance to make a decision, though. His communicator played a familiar cheery noise, and he flipped it open, still looking at the shelves before him.

"Robin, the Laurel Hill Children's Home is on fire. We've been called by the fire rescue--they think there's still children inside, and... " Raven said. Robin started to the door. "We don't have much time, Robin. Just meet us there!" And she broke the link.

Robin checked his communicator's map. The Children's Home was only three blocks away. He could see the smoke from outside the bookstore. He took a running leap and used his grappling hook to pull himself onto a roof so that he wouldn't have to run through the crowds.

---

"Oh my G-d..." Cyborg murmured upon him and his friends' arrival at the scene.

"Hey! The Titans are here!" A fireman yelled out to his comrades. He jogged over to Cyborg, sweating under all the heavy equipment. "Okay, look, that building is about to collapse and we can't go in there. See, boy? But there's a kid in there, maybe more than one. We got no idea where. None of y'all can walk through fire by any chance, can ya?"

Cyborg gravely shook his head. Some people were gathering outside the police tape and three women with some small children were huddled together wrapped up in blankets. Beast Boy frowned, squinting his eyes at the flames. He couldn't think of any animal that could really help here. Some firemen were using a large hose to keep the flames from getting to other buildings. He transformed into an elephant and pulled water from the ground into his trunk to assist the firemen, leaving just as Robin appeared.

"Robin, there are children in the flames!" Starfire exclaimed nervously upon spotting him. "Even I am not fireproof!" Robin looked the building up and down, trying to figure out the interior structures.

"Okay, team. We can't waste anymore time. Starfire, I want you to get more water for Beast Boy to use." Starfire flew off immediately without a word. "Cyborg, you and I are going to try and go in to get the kids if they're there. Raven, if we can't do it, will your powers be able to get you in and out safely?"

Raven look warily over at the colossal flames shooting into the bright afternoon sky.

"I think so." She said, and then closed her eyes for a moment. "There's a little boy in there. He's alive."

"Do you know where, Rae?" Cyborg asked, eager not to have to wander around a collapsing building.

"On the first floor, in a bathroom. It's keeping the debris off him for the most part, it seems."

"Okay, Cyborg, let's go!" Raven watched the two boys dash into the building. Starfire returned with what appeared to be a backyard swimming pool. Raven briefly wondered of the pool chemicals would make the fire worse.

There was a sudden, deafening bang from within the building. The back half of it had collapsed, and flames shot far out from the front. In the explosion-type reaction of the collapse, debris flew out into the street, narrowly missing actual humans. Some of the debris screamed, and it was soon discovered that Robin and Cyborg had been violently expelled from the building, covered in ash and not critically injured. The Titans' leader seemed to have sustained a few rather gross looking burns, but he was able to get up and go to Raven.

"What happened?" Robin asked.

"Part of the building collapsed, I think. In the back. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Is that kid still alive?"

"Yes. I'll go after him now."

"Be careful." Robin patted Raven on the shoulder.

Raven walked slowly towards the building, sidestepping large puddles and still burning debris. The flames were too hot for her to get nearer than five yards, so she put up a cool shield all around her and floated into the building as a giant black bubble.

The heat was making her shield weak, so she hurried, avoiding fallen beams and twisted metal. What she found towards the center of the Home shocked her. There was a white door still standing amid the flames and rubble, completely untouched. When she was directly in front of it, she dropped the front of her shield and was immediately soaked in sweat from the flames. She held her breath; having read somewhere that inhaling near fire would destroy the lungs.

The door opened easily, and the bathroom it guarded was clean and white. A little boy sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. His sandy hair moved with the hot winds of the fire being blown through the doorway. Raven scooped down and lifted the tiny boy.

"Are you okay, kid?" The boy did nothing. She shook him a little, and he opened his eyes, but wouldn't look at her. Raven exhaled and turned, hugging the boy to her chest as she stepped from the bathroom. Her shield guarded all around her again and she started to float out, when she realized that all the flames had _moved_ out of her way. In fact, all the flames were now at least six feet from her on all sides. She glanced at the boy, who grinned around at the blazes.

Raven shifted him, slightly unnerved, and her shield melted further until it was nearly gone. She started to walk, and as she did, the fire kept its distance on all sides. The boy cooed and wiggled in her grasp, but she held tight, picking her way over freshly cooled debris until she could see the street. Raven threw caution to the wind and ran out of the building, ready to be done with the whole ordeal.

"Raven!" She heard several voices yell at once. She handed the child to the first arms that reached for him and gladly accepted the blanket put on her shoulders. She started to cough the smoke and ash in her lungs out and finally had to sit down on the street. Some of her friends gathered around her.

"Raven! Are you okay?"

She was sure Robin had said that and that Cyborg was supporting her back.

"I'm fine." She coughed a final time. "That was up there with the strangest things to happen during saving someone as a Titan."

"What happened?" Cyborg asked. The firemen were starting to really get the fire under control now. He wondered if they'd been waiting to make sure no one was inside before possible causing the Home to completely collapse.

"I... That kid, for one thing. He wouldn't look at me at all." She looked directly at Robin, who was kneeling beside her. "The fire wouldn't touch him. When I was walking out. It all just backed away around us. I think he's got some kind of--"

"Raven!" Raven scrambled to her feet at the voice, and her comrades followed suit. Mr. Pilkvist came jogging up to them with his long, long legs.

"Raven, thank you, thank you so much!" Mr. Pilkvist seemed a little out of breath. Nonetheless, he grabbed Raven's hand and shook it violently, still thanking her.

"Err... You're welcome, Mr. Pilkvist, but... What did I do?"

"I hear you saved my nephew from the fire!"

"Nephew?" Robin asked. "Really?"

"Yes, my brother's son. I care for him these days, except I usually leave him at Laurel Hill during the day. He's autistic, but the ladies take very good care of him while I'm working." He let go of Raven's hand, grinning broadly.

"He's autistic?" Raven frowned. "That doesn't explain the fire." Mr. Pilkvist, Robin, and Cyborg looked at her very confusedly. "I mean, the fire backed off from him the whole way through the building. The room he was in was completely untouched!"

Robin held his chin thoughtfully. "Could he be a pyrokinetic?"

"What? Arash? A pyrokinetic? I don't think my nephew has any kind of powers, kids."

"Arash?" Cyborg asked.

"My sister-in-law was Iranian. It's the name of some legendary archer or something. But, look, I'm really glad that you guys saved my nephew, but he doesn't have any kind of powers-- and even if he did, he's way too mentally impaired to use them, really." Mr. Pilkvist sighed, looking weary. "I'm just going to take him home and get him something to eat early. I've got to start looking for a new daycare center for him as well. It was great to see you all again." He turned to leave, but stopped, remembering something. "Robin, you should probably wait to come by the bookstore until the day after tomorrow. I don't know if I'll be working tomorrow."

Robin nodded and the three Titans watched as Mr. Pilkvist went to get his son from the group of children by the ambulance.

---

Eighteen hundred words this time, guys! I'm getting closer and closer to two thousand a chapter:) Yeah, so anyway. I hope you all liked that bit there. Got some Robin in there. I'm trying to get all the Titans to have equal screen time, so not to disappoint anyone.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Chapter five is NOT written yet. I haven't even started. I have all kinds of finals going on right now, so I'm going to post this anyway to hopefully satiate you guys. (School ends June 7, so I'll be pretty much free after that.)

Thanks for reading,  
--Emerald

PS: If you've got any feedback (criticism, encouragement, even threats if I haven't updated in a while, etc) it's all welcome. If you've got nothing to say, well, I hope you did enjoy my story here. :)


	5. I'm too tired for this

Raven wandered down the hall of the tower in a fresh leotard and cape, still drying her hair with a clean white towel. The clothes she'd been wearing were ashy, but still wearable. It had been a month since the titans had last restocked on uniforms, so most of their clothes were torn in one place or another. Raven figured that they would be due for another visit to their outfitter in the next week or so. She didn't have too many wearable suits left.

Raven headed off to her room, walking right past the gym for once. She'd been working out once a day since she started the computer's program a week ago, but she didn't know if she would work out today. She was tired and still unnerved from the fire that morning. Well, that was her excuse for showering instead of eating lunch first with her friends, anyway. Raven decided, as she stepped into her room, that she'd have dinner with them tonight, to make up for it. She hadn't been spending as much time with her friends as she normally did.

The bed looked more welcoming than normal, but Raven sat on the floor and leaned against it. Naps were for children. Silence rang in her ears for a few moments before she finally called Robin up on her communicator.

"Raven? Need something?" He asked. Raven heard shouts and game music in the background.

"I was just wondering when we'd next go to get new uniforms."

"Uhh... I don't know off the top of my head. I think in two days. Yes. The day after tomorrow."

"Okay, then."

"No, wait. The mail just came. Come down here for a sec." Robin said before she could hang up.

"No thanks." She closed her communicator and let her head fall back against the bed.

---

When she next opened her eyes, light wasn't coming in through the big window anymore. Raven grunted and picked herself up off the floor slowly and jerkily. She was sore from sleeping in a position like that for so long. With a groan, Raven realized she must have missed dinner if it was so dark. That's when the sound that had awakened her originally repeated itself and echoed in the darkness. Three timid knocks on her door of the sort, Raven thought, would come of a little green fist in a little white glove.

She sighed and walked to the door with every intention of acting as irritable as she should have been feeling just then. The door swished open, though, and there was her smallest friend with that big stupid grin on his face and a bowl of her favourite vegetable soup in his hands.

"Hey, Raven! Uhm. You missed dinner and, uh, lunch, so I thought I'd bring you something. Are you okay?" Cue the nervous please-don't-kill-me face. Raven let loose a half-smile, though Beast Boy couldn't see it in the darkness of the hallway, and she opened the door a little wider to receive the bowl of soup.

"Thank you." She mumbled a little more audibly, she added, "I'm fine, though, Beast Boy."

"Okay." He said, grinning at her still, and with no apparent intention of leaving. Raven stared.

"Why are you still here?"

"Can I come in?"

"No." Raven slid the door shut and ate her soup standing by the window, looking out on the filthy, polluted water of the bay.

---

"Beast Boy, I thought you said that our friend... annoyed you?"

"Yeah, but I'm still trying to be nice and get along with her! Why does she keep shutting me down?"

"Perhaps Raven does not feel she is," And Starfire raised her hands to perform air-quote gestures, "'shutting you down.' Perhaps Raven's version of 'nice' is different from yours or mine."

Beast Boy threw himself down across Starfire's round purple bed and buried his face in her quilt. Starfire picked up Silkie off the ground and placed him back into the doll carriage he'd just escaped.

"What a bitch." Beast Boy mumbled. Starfire pretended not to have heard him. "Star, hasn't she been acting kind of weird lately?"

"I do not know, Beast Boy."

"I mean, she's been actually training and stuff. And hiding out in her room more than normal. And she was even sick for, like, three days! Don't tell me that's not weird. She's never sick!"

Starfire was silent for a moment.

"I suppose that is strange. But everyone becomes ill sometime, and I think it is good that Raven trains more now. She will have less difficulty in battle."

Beast Boy didn't answer her. There was a knock on the door before it opened. Robin strode in, head held high in that way that begs for mockery. Beast Boy rolled over to see him.

"Starfire--hey, Beast Boy--I need to talk to you about something. That's really confidential. And a secret. That Beast Boy probably shouldn't--"

"I'm going, I'm going!" Beast Boy pulled himself to his feet and ambled out of the room.

Robin waited until he could no longer hear Beast Boy's footsteps in the hall and shut the door.

"Star, I need to talk to you about Beast Boy."

"Robin, he was just here. Why did you not talk to him about Beast Boy?"

Robin shook his head. "He talks to you, right?"

"That is correct."

"Does he have a girlfriend?" Robin walked over to sit on Starfire's bed. She was looking at Silkie--and away from Robin--waiting for her blush to vanish.

"Robin, I do not think--" She paused and looked at him. "Alright. He does, Robin. But please do not tell him I have told you!"

"It's okay, Star. I just wanted to know why he's been running off to meet 'someone' every other day." He laid back on the soft mattress. "Odd. I always thought he was gay."

---

One thousand words. Half of a normal chapter. (Okay, it's nine hundred, eighty-four.) Sorry, my people, but it has been too long and I just want to get this posted as soon as possible. Chapter six is finished, and I'm about to start on chapter seven. I've started playing Guildwars, but my computer sucks, so during the long loading screens, I can turn to my laptop and write fanfiction! YES! Good for you guys, I suppose.

Thanks,

Emerald

PS: If you've got any feedback (criticism, encouragement, even threats if I haven't updated in a while, etc) it's all welcome. If you've got nothing to say, well, I hope you did enjoy my story here. :)


	6. I hate everyone

"I am sick and tired of these motherfuckin' criminals at motherfuckin' five in the morning!" Beast Boy grumbled, shortly before he flopped on the floor next to the breakfast bar in the main room. Robin stepped over him and sat on a barstool, in order to more comfortably rest his head on the counter.

"How many times I got to tell you, BB?" Cyborg said warningly. He went to the fridge to look for the ingredients to a mass breakfast. Starfire wearily glided over to the barstool next to Robin and seated herself, conveniently not noticing Raven's beeline for that stool and her subsequent scowl as it was snatched away. Starfire buried her head in her arms right next to Robin.

Raven rubbed some of her sore arm muscles. Someone at the local maximum-maximum security prison had accidentally awakened Plasmus early that morning. It had been a tough fight for Raven, even without the darkness and timing, because she took the first harsh beating of the battle. All she could remember was a cement-mixer truck and a big hole in the ground, however, and so Raven elected to think very little of it. This especially considering the wounds on her teammates, some of which she'd already healed.

And this was why all Raven could do was growl at the loud metallic thumping on her head, courtesy of her loud metallic friend.

"Hey, Rae, wanna help me make breakfast?"

Raven shrugged and sluggishly retrieved the waffle iron and three pans, one each for pancakes, breakfast meats, and eggs. Beast Boy followed her back to the stove with his own two pans for soy and tofu breakfast foods, and commenced arguing with Cyborg over why Cyborg didn't need three of the four stovetop burners.

Raven looked around for help, but both Robin and Starfire seemed to have fallen asleep at the breakfast bar. She withstood the bickering for almost a minute and a half before smacking Robin in the back of the head and forcing him to stop pretending to sleep and deal with it. Raven decided that a shower would be a good idea while waiting for breakfast to be finished. She left quietly, and without anyone taking notice.

Robin blearily looked at Beast Boy and Cyborg having their heated debate, then at the sleeping Starfire next to him. He smiled at her cuteness.

"Guys, just shut up!" He yelled, not taking his head off his arms on the counter. Beast Boy and Cyborg glared at him expectantly until he looked up at them again. "What? I'm supposed to solve this? Fucking Christ... Cyborg just give him two of the burners. Don't be an ass."

Cyborg didn't bother to correct his language. Robin could not fall asleep again after that, though, so he left Starfire snoring and went to change into a uniform that reeked less of giant ooze monster and more of laundry detergent. Cyborg grudgingly allowed Beast Boy another stovetop burner, but the two battled silently for elbow room and condiments.

---

Half an hour later, Raven reappeared in the kitchen area, clean of all Plasmus goo, but with damp, tangled hair. She waited for Beast Boy to slide into the booth-like informal dining table before taking a seat next to him. Starfire slid into an inside corner from above, while Cyborg brought over the last platters of food.

"Cyborg, this is like a feast." Raven said, staring at the piles of food. "How do we afford all this?"

"I don't even care. Let's eat!" Cyborg exclaimed. Starfire and Beast Boy certainly didn't need to be told twice. They dug in as if this would be their last meal. Cyborg, for once, didn't start up a waffle eating contest with Beast Boy, but his furious food-stuffing made Raven cringe nonetheless.

"Hey," Beast Boy elbowed her gently and spoke with food in his mouth. "Aren't you eating?" Raven looked down at her empty plate. She shrugged and placed small helpings of each available food onto it, making sure that the eggs mixed well with the pancakes.

It wasn't that the food wasn't good, or that she wasn't hungry, but Raven didn't feel like eating that morning. She could still feel that purple slime on her skin, and it was killing her appetite. She took a bite when she felt as thought one of her friends were looking, but after about ten minutes of moving food around her plate, she stood and went to the kitchen to dispose of her slightly less than half-eaten meal. The other three Titans who had elected to eat breakfast were slowing down the steady inhalation of food, and Raven noticed that Robin hadn't come back upstairs to eat.

It wasn't unlike Robin to skip meals. It was a common occurrence, mostly because Robin cared more about his work as a Teen Titan than his well-being. The task of keeping the team leader alive had fallen to Raven as neither Cyborg nor Beast Boy notice these things, and Starfire's method of helping was just that--_Starfire's_ method.

However, Raven had no maternal instincts to rely on, so she snatched a slightly bruised banana from the bunch on top of the refrigerator and hoped a minimal amount of growling would be necessary to get Robin to eat that morning.

---

"Beast Boy, I do believe you've grown another inch and a half!"

Beast Boy gave the same grateful grin he'd offered up to Mrs. Dalkins since she'd started telling him so. No matter what she said, though, he knew for a fact that he'd only grown three-quarters of an inch since he'd met her. She knew that herself for a fact, since she'd only changed the size of his uniform once in his years as a Titan, but she also knew that Beast Boy's ego could always do with a little stroking.

"Alright, Robin, you first, of course!" Mrs. Dalkins led Robin back further into her shop and pushed him up onto a low stool. She pulled a roll of cloth measuring tape out of nowhere and started measuring. Robin stood perfectly still, probably from years of being measured for expensive custom-tailored suits, and from more years of being measured for his vigilante and circus costumes.

Starfire and Raven wandered around the shop, one less willing than the other, looking at various clothes and bolts of cloth. Starfire was in a shopping mood, as she was every time the Titans visited this little store, and she dragged Raven around, contemplating new costume after new costume. Raven, stoic creature that she was, allowed herself to be pulled from rack to rack, always shrugging when asked to make any kind of decision. She refused to be responsible for any mishap to do with Starfire's costume.

"Okay, then, boy, fifty slightly larger Robin suits will be sent to the tower by tomorrow." Mrs. Dalkin gave Robin a friendly shove off her stool. "Starfire? Starfire, it's your turn, sweetheart!"

Starfire clapped her hands excitedly and floated over clothing racks to Mrs. Dalkins' side. Raven wandered to the front of the shop where Cyborg and Beast Boy were lounging in some overstuffed pink armchairs that didn't match. She ignored the boys and allowed herself to fall into the air in a meditative lotus position.

---

Her violet eyes were open for three seconds and she already wanted to blast everything she saw to hell. There was Beast Boy, way inside her personal bubble, face inches from her own, tugging his eyelids and waggling his tongue.

"...Zinthos." Raven whispered. Beast Boy vanished into a clothing rack Raven couldn't see, but she could hear muffled yells beyond fabric. She turned to her right, where Cyborg was laughing it up in his armchair.

"What's funny?"

Cyborg suddenly sat stock still with the straightest face he could manage.

"Uhm... Your turn." He said, cringing. Raven was radiating irritability, and, frankly, it did nothing for her already sallow complexion. Raven sighed and walked to the back of the smallish, overcrowded (with _stuff_) store, where Mrs. Dalkins was waiting for her. Raven made the effort to smile at the shortish, fatish old lady. Dalkins reached out and pulled her onto the stool by her wrist.

"Dearie, have you lost weight?" Mrs. Dalkins asked concernedly as Raven took off her cloak.

"I don't think so. Not much..." Raven mumbled, embarrassed. She let her heavy cloak fall in a heap by a rack of colourful scarves. Mrs. Dalkins stared into her face with bright blue eyes, making Raven immensely uncomfortable, before measuring all random bits of Raven's person.

"You have, you're definitely a bit smaller, Raven. It looks like everyone but Beast Boy is getting resized costumes!"

"Hm."

"Yes, but you're the only one going smaller." Mrs. Dalkins wrote down some figures on a legal pad attached to the wall. "Even your friend Starfire had slightly larger measurements. You're alright, though. You can afford to shed a few pounds, dearie."

Raven said nothing. She walked out to meet her friends by the T-car, though, as it turned out, they were walking to lunch, since the pizza parlour was so near by.

---

Cut at fifteen hundred words exactly. I just couldn't think of five hundred words that would belong here. Once again, thank Guildwars and my crappy computer for the update:D Well, and you should also thank Aislinn for never letting me forget that I have an unfinished story sitting on my computer.

Thanks,

Emerald

PS: If you've got any feedback (criticism, encouragement, even threats if I haven't updated in a while, etc) it's all welcome. If you've got nothing to say, well, I hope you did enjoy my story here. :)


	7. I think money is pointless

"Do you grow?"

"What?"

Raven sighed impatiently. "Do. You. Grow?"

"Yeah. Why? Shouldn't I?" Cyborg asked thoughtfully, replacing a tiny screw in the side of the T-car's engine. Raven shrugged. Silence held for a few minutes. Raven turned and leaned her back against the T-car. She turned her head a little so she could see Cyborg working, and then looked away again.

"Mrs. Dalkins said everyone but Beast Boy and I needed larger uniforms. So I was just curious about you."

"Hopefully I'll stop growing soon."

"Why?"

"When my biological part grows, my mech pieces need to be replaced and resized to keep up." Cyborg pulled out a large piece of the engine that Raven didn't recognize.

"Is that why you've been at STAR labs so much lately?"

"No." And perhaps anticipating another question, he added: "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Mrs. Dalkins said I'd lost weight. I got a smaller uniform." Raven glanced at Cyborg, suddenly and inexplicably nervous about his reaction. Her friend didn't even look up.

"Hm." He pushed a very shiny tube-like thing into the side of some other shiny thing in the opened-up engine of his car. Raven felt strangely disappointed and didn't know why.

---

Robin's head connected with the keyboard repeatedly to the sound of his head connecting with the keyboard. Repeatedly.

"Did we really spend ten thousand on 'Uniforghfarmintoonibensond?'"

Robin toppled sideways out of his chair.

"Awesome." Beast Boy rolled his eyes, leaning over Robin's now-empty chair to put his finger on the backspace bar and correct the word "Uniforms."

"Don't mock me." Robin muttered from the floor, partially hidden from view by the desk. "We're so far in debt we may never see sunlight again."

Beast Boy looked up at the screen thoughtfully. Then his jaw dropped.

"**That's** what we get paid?!"

"Yeah. Each. It's only enough to cover food and bills for the tower." Robin got up from the floor, wondering if it the payment was larger, smaller, or more existent than Beast Boy had thought. "The tower is otherwise paid for by STAR. And then uniforms, we get an allowance for from Batman...but we went over this time. Too many of us needed resizes."

"But we shouldn't be that far in debt--look, we get money from that group that helps support superheroes, don't we? I know they're, like, really new or whatever, but we should totally have a check by now, dude." Beast Boy asked.

"Uhm. They only support the ones who can't get normal sidejobs. Oh, hey, that would be you, Raven, and Starfire, wouldn't it?" Robin sat back down in his computer chair. "I'll have to contact them."

"Okay, so what else is putting us in debt, then?"

"Uhm. Entertainment stuff, like cable, games, and movie tickets." Robin took on his 'expert voice.' "And then there's the damage that we do to the city while fighting crime, but that's paid for mostly by the criminal we're after at the time once he's caught. Oh, and people try to sue us sometimes, but Mr. Wayne helps us out with that by paying for a lawyer to settle out of court and keep everything hush-hush.

"Basically, we need about half a million dollars a month on average, and only about three quarters of that ends up getting paid for. And then you multiply that by however long we've been at this, and you've got 'The Teen Titans: Royally Fucked.'"

"Wow." Said Beast Boy.

"I'm going to Gotham for a few hours tonight to talk to Mr. Wayne about our options."

"Heh."

"What? I got over the crippling independence thing a while ago, you know." Robin growled, a smallish tic forming on his forehead.

"No, I mean, I can't believe how much it costs to keep us running. Are the rest of the superhero groups like that? And--hey, who sues us?"

"Civilians with nothing better to do. Property damage, emotional trauma, you name it... You don't even know what we got after Terra and Slade took over." Robin glanced at Beast Boy to check for a reaction. There was none to be noticed.

---

"Don't you have anything to do, Starfire?"

"Not at all, Raven."

"Would you like to?" Raven growled inaudibly. She wanted to let her door slide shut so she could get back to what she'd been doing.

"Would I like to what?" Starfire asked innocently. She was smiling, but wasn't sure how much longer she could stand there pretending to have "nothing in particular" on her mind.

"Would you like to have something to do?" By this time, Raven was getting exponentially more annoyed every time Starfire did that "Look! I'm innocent and pretty!" blinking maneuver that made it so impossible to shun the girl.

"Raven," she said, finally dropping the act and her smile. "I would like to... talk? If you have the time to speak with me. It is... rather important, and I don't feel that I may speak with anyone else about it."

"You could tell your diary." Raven muttered snarkily, widening the doorway so that Starfire could step past her. "What is it, Starfire?"

Starfire looked around Raven's room for a moment before walking over to the middle of the floor and sitting down. She knew better than to think she and Raven would be having any kind of "girltalk" on the girl's bed. Raven followed her, but hesitated before sitting.

"What is it, Starfire?" she asked again, with the same amount of hostility as the first time she'd asked... or maybe just a smidgeon less.

"I think that it is unlikely that Robin will trust me as more than a teammate, Raven! He has been acting very strangely when we are alone. And Cyborg and Beast Boy haven't been around as much, and you, also! All of you have been very secretive lately, and Beast Boy was right, I think, in saying that something must be very wrong, that you were sick." Starfire inhaled. "Raven, we had never seen you become sick before! And then, Robin questioned me about Beast Boy, and I fear I may have endangered our friend's love affair by telling Robin and...oh, I do not feel well."

"So.. uhm." Raven shifted anxiously under her friend's expectant stare. "Okay, Robin's a little weird all the time. And Cyborg has been at STAR Labs a lot, probably just maintenance stuff. And I'm fine now. It was just a bug. Everyone gets sick."

"Right, but Robin and Cyborg are not the most worrying to me now, nor is your illness."

"What is, then? Beast Boy?"

"Yes..." Starfire slouched, her long hair falling in her face. Raven briefly imagined it wrapping around the thin orange neck in the middle of the night as she slept.

"So he has a girlfriend?"

Starfire's head snapped up. "Oh! I should not have told you!"

"It's okay, Starfire, I won't tell anyone else. Do you know who it is? I mean, we've seen the kind of girl he falls for. My impression of her isn't very good based on the fact alone that he hasn't told anyone but you." Raven leaned forward, lost in curiosity.

Starfire was silent for a moment.

"She is nothing like Terra." Starfire said at last, twisting a length of her hair in her fingers. "But no, I do not know her, and I have not met her. Your impression of her may be correct. Beast Boy has told me that the Titans would not approve of this girl."

"You seem a little... jealous of her."

"I am, Raven, and it's terrible!" Starfire groaned unhappily, thinking about whether Robin could be with another girl. If Beast Boy could keep such a secret, who knew what Robin was hiding.

"Are you going to tell him?" Raven asked. She tried to hide a grimace. Starfire and... Beast Boy?

"I don't think so. Raven please swear not to tell Robin and Beast Boy what I have told you."

"Your secret's safe with me."

---

The plot thickens! Or not... This one's still far below two thousand words, but that's okay. At least I'm posting, right? Anyway, there you go. Three little miniplots just began. If I can keep up with continuity, this will be fun. Happy reading.

--Em


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